d. 1210. Mapes, Appendix, 340. Maken of the rym and raff Suche gylours for pompe and pride.
c. 1337. Manning, Tr. French Poem [Oliphant, New Eng., i. 21. The French words are quash . . . riff and raff].
14[?]. MS. [Lincoln, A. i. 17, fol. 148]. Ilk a manne agayne his gud he gaffe, That he had tane with ryfe and raffe.
1531-47. Copland, Spyttel Hous [Hazlitt, Pop. Poet., iv. 41]. And euer haunteth among such ryf raf.
1611. Florio, Ital. Dict. Gentaglia, common or base, riffe-raffe, the scum of the earth, the base multitude of common people. Ibid. Ciarpance, riff-raff, luggage, trash.
d. 1677. Barrow, Unity of the Church. The synod of Trent was convened to settle a raff of errors and superstitions.
1709. Hearne, Diary, 10 Sept. He has his riff-raff notes upon Lycophron.
1847. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, xxix. There is no town of any mark in Europe but it has its little colony of English raffs.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Lab., I. 325. 'People, you see,' he said, 'wont buy their "accounts" of raff; they won't have them of any but respectable people.'
1884. Clark Russell, Jack's Courtship, xvii. Her main deck was a surface of straw, dirt, wet, and what sailors call raffle.
1886. D. Tel., 1 Ap. Shipping all sorts of sea-faring riff-raff.
1888. Kipling, Departmental Ditties, 'The Galley.' And the topsmen clear the raffle.
Rifle, verb. (venery).—To grope
or possess a woman: see Ride.
1620. Percy, Folio MS., p. 194. Then lets imbrace and riffle and trifle.
Rig, subs., adj., and verb. (old).—1.
Generic for wantonness. As
subs. = (1) a wanton (also rig-mutton
and rigsby); (2) a
drinking or wenching bout; (3)
anything dubious, as a knock-out,
a cross fight, a cheat; (4) an
unscrupulous person; and (5) a
half or whole gelding (see quots.
1647 and 1678). As verb. = (1)
to play the wanton; (2) to
spree (q.v.); (3) to trick, to
steal; and (4) to ride pick-a-back.
Hence riggish = wanton;
rigolage = wantonness; to
run (play or carry) a rig
= to play fast-and-loose; to rig
the market = to raise or depress
prices for one's private advantage:
hence to swindle; up to the
rigs = expert, wide-awake, fly
(q.v.).—Grose (1785).
c. 1320. Cursor Mundi, MS. Coll. Trin., Cantab., f. 1. In ryot and in rigolage Spende mony her youthe and her age.
1551. Still, Gammer Gurton's Needle [Dodsley, Old Plays (Reed), ii. 43.] Nay, fy on thee, thou rampe, thou ryg, with al that take thy part
1557. Tusser, Husbandrie, Sept., 39. Some prowleth for fewel, and some away rig Fat goose and the capon.
1570. Levins, Manip. Vocab., 119. To rigge, lasciuire puellam.
1598. Florio, Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Galluta, a cockish, wanton, or riggish wench. Ibid. Mocciacca . . . a rigge, a harlot.
1608. Shakspeare, Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 2. For vilest things Become themselves in her; that the holy priests Bless her when she is riggish.
1647. Fletcher, Women Pleased, ii. 6. A pox o' yonder old Rigel.
1650. Fuller, Pisgah Light, iv. vi. Let none condemn them [the girls] for rigs because thus hoyting with the boys.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, iii. ix. The mad-pate reeks of Bedlam.
1678. Cotton, Virgil Travestie [Works (1725), 64]. I hate a base cowardly Drone, Worse than a Rigil with one Stone.
1739. Duke of Montague [quoted by Theodore Hook in Odd People, 'An Honest Practical Joke']. "Now all my wig-singeing, and nose-blacking exploits, will be completely outdone by the rig [that was the favorite word in the year 1739] I shall run upon this unhappy devil with the tarnished lace."
